Spieth wants an end to Masters meltdown talk

Jordan Spieth is keen to draw a line under his Masters meltdown last month as he prepares for his first event since the infamous collapse.

The American appeared set to go wire-to-wire for a second year in succession and win another green jacket at Augusta.

But the usually unflappable Spieth dropped six shots in three holes in his final round and eventually settled for joint second, with Englishman Danny Willett going on to win his first major.

Spieth is back in action at The Players Championship this weekend, but the two-time major winner found he could not escape the spectre of his Masters implosion so easily.

"I think people have moved on already. At least I thought so until I came in here today," Spieth told reporters.

One reporter asked Spieth if Willett truly won the Masters, or if Spieth lost it, to which the 22-year-old Texan replied: "That's bull. He [Willett] won. He earned it."

Spieth, though, readily admitted to the difficulty of presenting the green jacket to Willett after the manner of his demise.

"At this point I don't think people feel sorry for me. It's the nature of the game," Spieth said.

"It's not like winning is easy. I don't have another win coming my way in my career necessarily. You have to earn it."

However, the world number two insisted he bears no psychological scars.

"I'll just tell you I'm not affected by it," he added. "It was the wrong miss at the wrong time. If I hit a good shot but it goes in the water it's not because of the Masters.

"It's behind me. What comes on now I'm doing for myself."

Rory McIlroy will again be one of Spieth's main rivals this week, and the Northern Irishman, the victim of a spectacular collapse at Augusta in 2011 and still without a green jacket of his own, has no concerns about his rival's mindset.

"He's very resilient and I think we've all seen that over the last few years," McIlroy said.

"These thing happen, it's golf. The back nine at Augusta can make you do strange things at times.

"I think it was smart of him to take those four weeks off and decompress and get a few things out of his system."

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